GSC In-game Tier List
permission from Nexus
YES I WILL GET THIS DONE MY COMPUTER WORKS NOW
(OP taken over from TrollFreak for NixHex)
Hey, OI, welcome to the GSC in-game tiers list. Anyone can post! So don't be afraid to post your thoughts, comments, etc. in the thread. Small entries only, and this goes up to Red.
I've decided that making this run kind of like a threatlist, so here are some things to follow:
The following is a list of what is [Reserved] and [DONE]. If you would like to reserve something, post here, VM / PM me, whatever, just let me know so I can update the thread accordingly.
How to post:
The article can be found here
Pokemon GSC In-Game Tier List
Top Tier:
Abra
Availability: Early
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Above Average
Additional Comments: Useless against Whitney, the first leader you can fight after catching it, but excels later. Cleans out Morty's Gym by itself, same with Chuck's Gym. It slaughters Jasmine with Fire Punch, fares well vs Pryce and Clair, and does well against the Elite Four. Also cleans out every Team Rocket member by itself except for the final one at Radio Tower.
Gyarados (Red)
Availability: Required event
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Above Average
Additional Comments: The Red Gyarados rolls around at about the same level or higher than the rest of your team. It dominates everything in its path with Thrash (which even conserves PP thanks to being a multi-hit attack!), and makes a decent Surf user if you lack one already. If worse comes to worse, it's an excellent HM slave.
High Tier:
Cydaquil
Availability: Starter
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Above Average
Additional Comments: Fire-type STAB is one of the best in-game with only Rock-, Water-, and Fire-types resisting it, none of which feature prominently on opposing teams. It also obtains super effective coverage on three gym leaders pre-E4. Defensively it resists Grass-, Steel-, Fire-, Ice-, and Bug-types, the latter two being important for gyms.
Onix (Steelix)
Availability: Earlier and easy as Onix, you can trade one for a Bellsprout on Violet City.
Stats: Adove avarage.
Movepool: Avarage.
Gyms that it fares well against: Wins alone against Falkner, Bugsy, Whitney, Morty (once evolved), Jasmine, Pryce, Will, Koga, Lt. Surge, Sabrina, Erika, and Janine, and is helpful against Red's Pikachu and Snorlax.
Additional Comments: While he's Onix, he will be superior to Geodude, and somewhat similar to Graveler, but taking more turns to deal the same damage (but taking less damage from the enemy as well), but once it evolves; thing he can do before Morty with the Metal Coat from a wild Magnemite - but they had only 3% chance to have it -, keep it as Onix until aboard the S.S Aqua, somewhat late, sadly), he'll crush and destroy everything on the game that doesn't have Fire or Water attacks, and even then, he can deal huge damage or use support moves before failing or switching-out against them.
Gastly
Availability: Early
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Above Average
Additional Comments: Good Speed and powerful Special Attack, low Special Defense and Defense. Literally the only reasons it's in High and not Top is that it requires trading and evolves late (Level 25 is late in GSC).
Machop
Availability: Early
Stats: High
Movepool: Average
Additional Comments: Useful immediately to power through Whitney's team, and matches up fairly well with other gym leaders and the Elite 4.
Mareep (Gold and Silver only)
Availability: Early
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Above Average
Additional Comments: Great Special Attack and rather good defenses with all things considered, but is lacking speed. It is also weak to what is probably the least common attacking type in the game, Ground.
Geodude
Availability: Early
Stats: Average
Movepool: Average
Additional Comments: Geodude absolutely dominates the first three gyms and fairs fairly well against Morty if you bring a Mint Berry or two. Rock Throw is amazing against titans like Falkner's Pidgeotto and Bugsy's Scyther and it can go toe-to-toe with Whitney's Miltank of all things! Even after the first half of the gyms, it does great in the Team Rocket portions of the game and walls Rattata and Zubat all day.
Magmar (GS)
Availability: Fairly early, about midway through Johto in Burnt Tower.
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Average
Gyms that it fares well against: Fire Punch and Thunderpunch is good coverage for Jasmine and Pryce. It doesn't help much against Clair but it does do well against particular pokemon used by the elite 4. Koga is probably its best match-up, using Fire Punch for his bugs and Thunderpunch for Crobat. In Kanto, you have Erika and Janine as strong match-ups.
Other info: Fire STAB is fairly useful in GSC, and in GS Magmar is your best choice for a Fire type if you didn't pick Cyndaquil.
Slowpoke
Availability: Before Chuck's Gym. Can get a fully evolved Slowbro if lucky (Slowpoke Well). Alternatively, you can find a Slowpoke, level it up a bit, and trade right after you catch it.
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Above Average
Gyms that it fares well against: Does fairly well against most everything in-game
Other info: Water is always a great in-game typing, and Psychic is still very nice as Bug- and Dark-type attacks are rare. Opponents with Shadow Ball are basically non-existent after you get Slowbro/king. You do somewhat overlap with the Red Gyarados in terms of weaknesses/resistances, but unlike Gyarados, you get Psychic STAB and can make good use of Surf and Ice attacks-- doubling up on Water-types never hurts in GSC (especially since there are 2 Water type HMs you need to move around the map--Give Surf to Slowbro/king and throw waterfall somewhere on Gyarados).
Mid Tier:
Mantine - Mid Tier
Availability: He's a somewhat rare encounter on the sea routes between Olivine and Cianwood. You'll probably encounter at least one if you don't Repel spam.
Stats: Mantine's got a gargantuan 140 Base Special Defense and a respectable Base 80 Special Attack. Defense and HP are a little low at 70 and 65 respectively, and don't even bother with physical attacks, as it's not killing anything with Base 40 Attack. Speed's kinda mediocre as well at Base 70, but it's enough to get it by.
Movepool: Surf and Blizzard. These are the only two moves that matter, and Mantine uses them pretty darn well. Most of the things Mantine likes to hit use either Special Attacks or are slower than he is, so Mantine can afford to only have a couple of good moves. Yeah, his movepool is pretty barren...
Matchups: Mantine can beat Chuck's Primeape, but can't really harm his Poliwrath. Jasmine's Piloswine, Clair's three Dragonairs, and Pryce's Piloswine also fall to the manta ray. In the E4, Will has trouble actually hurting Mantine thanks to its Special Defense, but can't kill Slowbro. Koga's Ariados, Crobat and Venomoth also fall to Mantine, but Forretress likes to blow up and Muk likes to sit there and take Special hits all day. Bruno's Machamp has Rock Slide, but everyone else dies to Surf. Karen's Houndoom, Umbreon, and (sadly, terrible) Gengar all die to Mantine. The Dragonites outspeed Mantine, but Blizzard sorts them out, and only the Thunder Dragonite really poses a problem. In Kanto, Blaine, Janine, Brock, and part of Blue's team fall to Mantine. Red's Charizard is also no match for Mantine.
Additional Comments: Mantine's problem is a lack of moves. This is one of those things that GSC is famous for. Many Pokemon in this Generation suffer from not having a move they really want. Mantine really wants Ice Beam, but only gets it in Crystal. He's also not as diverse as some of the other Water types (looking at you, Lanturn), and he's pretty rare. All these factors plant him solidly in Mid Tier.
Teddiursa (C)
Availability: Early, before the first gym in Dark Cave.
Stats: Good
Movepool: Above Average
Gyms that it fares well against: It proves to be useful against the first gym leaders based on the power of its STAB moves alone (especially when it gets Headbutt). Once it reaches Goldenrod City it can improve its coverage with the elemental punches, allowing it to beat more things more easily. Fire Punch helps against Jasmine and by combining it with Thunderpunch you can sweep Pryce. Ice Punch deals with Clair, and from there you have the power and coverage to deal with a large number of the pokemon used by the elite 4 and Kanto Gym Leaders.
Other info: Thanks to a simple improvement in avaiability, this becomes an excellent choice for in-game runs. It comes early and has the stats and movepool to remain useful throughout the whole game.
Tauros
Stats: Above Average.
Movepool: Above Average
Gyms that it fares well against: Depending on having Earthquake or not, Tauros Gym/Boss match up goes from Amazing into Absurd. Tauros can handle almost every gym after Chuck by the virtue of having High Powered Normal Type as its STAB.
Other info: Defensively, Normal has one weakness, and one immunity. Fighting Weakness rarely come as a problem(only maybe Chuck, and Bruno's Machamp) while Ghost immunity means its match up against Morty's gym where you are not expected to have Pursuit yet. Offensively, Normal is kind of like gen 4 onwards Dragon, a type with relatively good neutral coverage, coupled with STAB to achieve higher level of power. The resistor can be handled with a coverage moves. That being said, most of Tauros Match up can be summed as: Does it resist Normal? No: Spam Normal Yes: Cover it.
Onix
Availability: Earlier and easy, you can trade one for a Bellsprout on Violet City.
Stats: Avarage.
Movepool: Avarage.
Gyms that it fares well against: Wins alone against Falkner, Bugsy, Whitney, and Lt. Surge without problem, and is helpful against Morty (needs the Mud Slap or Dig TM), Jasmine (same as before), Koga, Karen, Janine, Blaine, and Red (good against Pikachu, Snorlax, and Charizard).
Additional Comments: He's better than Geodude before it evolves, and is somewhat similar to Graveler, except because Onix prefer to deal damage with Bind + Sandstorm and wall the enemy while he's Screeching it for others or himself, too. Also, he can handle and survive to any random Self-Destruct and Explosion, and give you time for revive / heal his partners on mid battle. He will not sweep any time soon, but he can easy handle a good number of trainers and gyms alone. Also, he's a in-game trade, so, he'll win experience faster and will have better levels with less effort.
Elekid
Crystal: Mid Tier; Gold/Silver: Bottom Tier / out of play
Availability: Route 34 in Crystal (as an egg).
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Above Average where it counts
Gyms that it fares well against: Jasmine, if you grind and buy Fire Punch. Pryce, sort of with the water types. Clair if you bought the Ice Punch. From the Elite 4: Will's team is ripped apart, Koga if you got Fire Punch, can do a bit of damage, Karen you'll do well against for the secondary typing, and Lance is a dead-man. In Kanto: Erika dies to ice punch, Janine's dead, save for Weezing, Misty (except Quaggy) is decimated, and Blastoise is done from Red.
Additional Comments: Not much competition for that egg in Crystal. Magmar is nice, but fire is inferior. The trick is getting that Elekid, which is tough when it could contain Igglybuff, Pichu, Cleffa, Tyrogue, Magby, Elekid or Smoochum. Electabuzz quickly gets access to Thunderbolt and Ice Punch, even sets up a Dizzy Punch or Light Screen if you are bored (Dizzy punch is included in the Crystal Egg). It's not quite a Lapras in terms of movepool, but it doesn't have many weaknesses to speak of (though Ground is an issue). Makes up for not having Ampharos in Crystal. In Gold/Silver, he's completely useless, as he comes late, and you have Mareep from the beginning of the game. Mareep DOES NOT have access to an Ice move, though.
Chinchou
Availability: Midway through Johto, via fishing with a Good Rod.
Stats: Below Average
Movepool: Above Average
Gyms that it fares well against: Wide coverage is helpful. Spark and Surf work well together. It can hold its own Chuck’s Poliwrath, Jasmine’s Steelix, and Pryce’s team, and remains useful against particular elite 4 Pokémon (Gyarados, Onix, Murkrow, Slowbro, Xatu, etc.). It can also take on Brock, Misty and Blaine.
Other info: The Electric typing is a nice twist on what would otherwise be a generic Water type. Despite its middling stats, its STABs alone make it useful and it provides utility by learning all of the Water HMs. A set of Surf/Waterfall/Whirlpool/Spark is probably its best bet.
Chikorita
Availability: Starter Pokemon
Stats: The Chikorita family has fairly balanced stats. They have pretty good defenses, and their attack stats are not great but usable.
Movepool: Chikorita’s level-up movepool is not the best offensively, only giving it Razor Leaf (which has been nerfed in Gen 2) and Body Slam. However, it does learn a ton of great support moves, such as Reflect, Light Screen, and Synthesis.
Gyms that it fares well against: Chikorita actually serves as one of the best checks to Whitney’s infamous Miltank due to Reflect + Synthesis. Razor Leaf will also deal good damage to Chuck’s Poliwrath, Jasmine’s Steelix, and Pryce’s Piloswine. Meganium can also handle Bruno as Onix is OHKO by Razor Leaf, and a Reflect helps keep Meganium gets by the Fighting moves. In Kanto, Meganium's typing gives it an advantage over Brock, Misty, L.T. Surge, Erika, & half of Red's team (Pikachu, Venusaur, and Blastoise).
Additional Comments: Chikorita is certainly an interesting starter. It struggles in many places, but its a good team supporter and can excel in some of the games harder match ups, such as Whitney and Red.
Bellsprout
Availability: Early
Stats: Average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Bellsprout can be caught right around the first gym and, although it's useless in that particular battle, it does very well in Union Cave. Vine Whip is not to be underestimated when it's striking Onix and Geodude for 4x super effective damage. As time goes by, Bellsprout stays useful by learning Sleep Powder(!), and later on Sludge Bomb and Razor Leaf. Using Vine Whip for so long gets annoying, but it gets the job done when it's needed. Sadly, it will take ages for it to reach its full potential as a Victreebel in Gold and Silver, but it can get off the round pretty early if you're playing Crystal.
Sentret
Availability: Early
Stats: Below Average
Movepool: Wide
Additional Comments: Has bad offensive stats but respectable Speed. Makes an excellent HM slave, learning Surf, Cut, and Strength.
Magby (C)
Availability: Early, hatched from the Odd Egg.
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Average
Gyms that it fares well against: Magby is available for Whitney, unlike GS Magmar. However, it isn't useful here since it gets destroyed by Whitney's Rollout. It will also be unevolved for Morty. Otherwise, the matchups are the same. Fire Punch and Thunderpunch still provide excellent coverage against many important pokemon (Jasmine and Pryce mainly). It contributes in elite 4 battles, especially against Koga.
Other info: Magmar is still a strong pokemon but it comes unevolved and underleveled in Crystal, and you have to hope that the Odd Egg hatches into the right pokemon. This makes it a less useful choice in Crystal.
Low Tier:
Oddish
Availability: Oddish is first found when you reach Ilex Forest, and is fairly common at night.
Stats: Good early on, but having a stone evo really gives him problems.
Movepool: Pretty bad. Oddish suffers from having only Absorb, Acid, and Cut for a long, long, time, and Sludge Bomb isn't much help. It takes until the E4 to get a useful attack move.
Gyms that it fares well against:
Oddish can help with Chuck, Bruno, Lt. Surge, Erika, and Brock, as well as cleaning up certain pokemon on other teams. It also isn't completely destroyed by Team Rocket, compared to other Grass types.
Other info: Vileplume's biggest two problems are severely bad damage early on and a difficult evolution. Both of these cannot be rectified until the E4, so using it's honestly an uphill battle. Cut being your best move against most things is very unpleasant, and being walled is never fun. In the end it's not so bad that it can't be used, it's just terrible enough that almost any other Grass type that isn't useless(examples of useless include Hoppip and Paras) probably does its job better. The poison neutrality is pretty good, though, and it's fairly usable in Kanto.
Teddiursa (G)
Availability: Later in Johto, Route 45.
Stats: Good
Movepool: Above Average
Gyms that it fares well against: It depends on what you teach it so you can mix-and-match to suit your teams needs. Ice Punch covers Clair, and Fire Punch and Thunderpunch add coverage against many of the Elite 4 pokemon. Teddiursa also has its powerful STAB moves to wreck mosts things that don't resist it, especially after evolution. Teddiursa remains useful against the Kanto gym leaders thanks to its great stats and movepool.
Other info: This is let down severely by being unavailable for most of the game. By the time you reach it, you may not even need its power because your team should be strong by that point. However, if you are willing to put in the time to get it to catch up it can be a great pokemon.
Pidgey
Availability: Early
Stats: Below Average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has weak stats all around and doesn't fully evolve until level 36, very late into the game and past the point of usefulness. It does learn Fly, however, and is available rather early.
Jigglypuff
Availability: Early. Route 46 (GS, as a Jigglypuff) or Route 34 (Crystal, either caught as a Jigglypuff or from the Odd Egg as an Igglybuff).
Stats: Below Average
Movepool: Above Average
Gyms that it fares well against: It depends on what moves you gave it. Fire Punch is good for Jasmine and Erika, Ice Punch is good for Clair, Erika and Brock, and Thunderpunch is good for Misty. It you have all 3 then you can potential contribute in almost all battles, but strength wise full sweeps will be difficult to achieve.
Other info: Like many normal types, it can achieve excellent coverage via TM moves. However, there are many better alternatives, and although Wigglytuff is an ok pokemon in its own right after it is evolved you may be better off using something else.
Bottom Tier:
Delibird
Bottom Tier
Stats: Dear lord, Delibird, you have the stats of a NFE Pokemon. Base 65 SpAtk is only slightly better than Ariados' and Base 45 defenses is just pitiful. The only interesting thing is having 75 Base speed...as your best stat.
Movepool: Godawful, you are completely reliant on TMs to do anything at all, because your only Level up move has a CHANCE OF HEALING YOUR FOE! As for TMs, aside from Fly, Icy Wind and Blizzard, there is nothing at all interesting. As in, you have no other STAB, the only other attacking moves you get are Headbutt and Mud Slap (and obligatory Frustration/Return)...and that's it. Nothing good at all aside from Blizzard, which got nerfed considerably in Gen 2 (90% accuracy all the way down to 70% accuracy)
Matchups: Delibird doesn't really excel anywhere thanks to its terribad stats and amazingly shallow movepool. The entire reason you'd want an Ice type is to take care of the six or so Dragons in the game, and Delibird can't even do that! He can contribute in some of the Kanto gyms if you didn't bother dumping it as soon as you could thanks to sheer level advantage, but even then, there are things that do its job way better in the same place that are far easier to find and capture.
Additional Comments: Delibird has a cool sounding cry, and a unique design. It also just so happens to have a terrible movepool consisting of Fly, Blizzard, and Icy Wind. It is completely reliant on TMs to do anything aside from healing the enemy, and even then, it can't use any TMs to make it a decent Pokemon. It's stats are also on the line between terrible and godawful. It's literally worse than Gen 3 Luvdisc, because at least it could learn some moves and have Ice Beam! Avoid at all cost.
Shuckle - Bottom Tier
Availability: Earliest you can get is after Sudowoodo, by getting the TM from the guy near it on Route 36 (don't worry about being limited, they also become available from Goldenrod), and going to Burned Tower to smash some rocks for a 10% chance of a L15 Shuckle. Otherwise, you can get one for free at Cianwood, which also gets boosted experience.
Stats: It has the best defenses in the game, but it also happens to be even slower than Slowpoke and has the offenses of a Magikarp.
Movepool: There isn't much to be said when your only STAB is Rollout. Shuckle learns a variety of utility moves (as well as Earthquake/Sludge Bomb, wasted on something with Shuckle's offenses), which makes him a status abuser, so to speak.
Gyms it's good at: Considering that his awesome defenses are countered badly by his bad HP, and that he has Magikarp-level offenses, he's not going to be useful anywhere soon other than being item fodder.
Other info: Shuckle may seem useless but still has one trick up his sleeve, legs, shell, whatever: he has the ability to make infinite Rare Candies. By attaching a Berry onto Shuckle and walking around, Shuckle will be able to turn your Berry into a Berry Juice and then a Rare Candy, providing the potential for infinite Rare Candies and a gamebreaker. Unfortunately, the time invested is contradictory to efficiency, placing it in Bottom.
Remoraid
Availability: Remoraid is very late by Johto standards, swarming at an underleveled 20 or after reaching Kanto when you get the Super Rod at level 40. It's not available in Crystal..
Stats: Remoraid has pathetic defenses and only decent offenses, and its evolution has only average defense but rather good mixed offenses.
Movepool: Below average. Remoraid basically depends on Aurora/Ice Beam, Bubblebeam/Surf, Psybeam, and perhaps Thief. Nothing else works for it.
Gyms that it fares well against:
Remoraid comes late and really doesn't do so well, especially since it's underleveled. It can possibly take out Karen(bar Vileplume) and Blaine, but everyone else either resists or easily KOs Octillery.
Other info: Octillery is probably one of the worst fully evolved water types in the game. It comes late, is easy to miss, doesn't even have any good moves for the time it does show up and is dangerously easy to KO considering its lame speed. It does get acceptable coverage for some of the smaller fights, but realistically you'd be better off with any other Water. Not to mention Surfing is mandatory by the time you actually have access to it, so you probably already have a good Water..
Hoppip
Availability: Routes 32 and 33, right after Violet City.
Stats: Bad. All he has is good speed.
Movepool: Horrible. He has almost no attacking options and has to rely on Synthesis with Status support.
Gyms that it fares well against:
Hoppip is only really capable of taking down Brock. Everyone else has at least one party member he cannot harm in any meaningful way, and often multiple ones.
Other info: Hoppip is really weak and almost completely useless. It can only attempt to use status to defeat most opponents, bar the occasional 4x grass weak.
Electabuzz
Gold/Silver: Bottom Tier / out of play
Availability: Route 10
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Above Average where it counts
Gyms that it fares well against: Jasmine, if you grind and buy Fire Punch. Pryce, sort of with the water types. Clair if you bought the Ice Punch. From the Elite 4: Will's team is ripped apart, Koga if you got Fire Punch, can do a bit of damage, Karen you'll do well against for the secondary typing, and Lance is a dead-man. In Kanto: Erika dies to ice punch, Janine's dead, save for Weezing, Misty (except Quaggy) is decimated, and Blastoise is done from Red.
Additional Comments: Electabuzz quickly gets access to Thunderbolt and Ice Punch, even sets up a Dizzy Punch or Light Screen if you are bored (Dizzy punch is included in the Crystal Egg). It's not quite a Lapras in terms of movepool, but it doesn't have many weaknesses to speak of (though Ground is an issue). In Gold/Silver, he's completely useless, as he comes late, and you have Mareep from the beginning of the game. Mareep DOES NOT have access to an Ice move, though.
Togepi
Availability: Early, obtained from an egg after beating Falkner.
Stats: Below Average
Movepool: Below Average
Gyms that it fares well against: It doesn’t really do well against any of them in Johto thanks to its poor movepool early on. Its best moves (Psychic and SolarBeam) come quite late. Admittedly, those are useful against Brock, Misty and Janine, but it’s just too little too late.
Other info: This is junk. Poor stat distribution and a poor movepool make it fairly useless. The fact that it will be underleveled by the time it hatches (unless you actually stop your progress to wait for it to hatch) is lame and the way it evolves through happiness is yet another reason not to use this.
Unown
Availability: Early
Stats: Low
Movepool: Shallow
Gyms that it fairs well against: Falkner
Other info: Unown's only saving grace is the fact that you can catch one with a Hidden Power of any type, meaning that it can give some much-needed coverage early in the game; pick one with HP Ice, Electric, or Rock, and it'll help you beat out Falkner if you started with Chikorita. Its stats are too low to function meaningfully later in the game, though, even with super-effective attacks, and it cannot meaningfully be trained up because it badly needs coverage to score KOs.
Murkrow
Availability: Late
Stats: Low
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: It is extremely unavailable, has a poor stat distribution, a terrible movepool, and just being overall weak, and those defenses aren't helping much. However, it has a niche over Sabrina and Red, but its too late to warrant use.
Misdreavus
Availability: Late
Stats: Low
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Very rare, only found in Mt. Silver at night. It learns two attacking moves via level up, and only 8 total. It can't really put good TMs to use either besides Psychic.
Ledyba (Sliver and Crystal Only)
Availability: Early
Stats: Low
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Weak to Ice, Electric, Fire, Rock and Flying. Not exactly good news. It isn't worth commenting on its STABS because it has no STAB moves (not even Fury Cutter).
Ditto
Availability: Early
Stats: Low
Movepool: Transform
Additional Comments: Ditto is so terrible it needs no explanation. It's better left waiting until it becomes a Wifi mod.
Smeargle
Availability: Early
Stats: Low
Movepool: ADD
Additional Comments: Smeargle can learn any move it wants, but it's extremely painful to do so once every ten levels with no move tutor and no double battles to copy partner attacks. Did I mention it's hard to get, too?
Weedle
Availability: Route 30 on Silver/Crystal. Gold players get this at Bug-Catching contest (or catch Beedrill directly). Honestly there probably isn't a difference other than directly caught Beedrill lacking Poison Sting.
Stats: Passable Attack and Special Defense, decent speed, but incurable physical bulk.
Movepool: Enjoy abusing Twineedle for quite a while. Finishing Team Rocket in Mahogany nets you Sludge Bomb.
Gyms: well it 4x resists Fighting so it's useful against Chuck/Bruno... if the former didn't just blow you away with Fury Swipes Primeape and Surf Poliwrath, and the latter has Rock Slide Machamp. It completely walks over Erika but you must be one dedicated trainer to be using Beedrill in Kanto. Psychics are a no-no: Beedrill cannot kill things in time before it gets killed.
Additional Comments: Double resists to Fighting and Grass aren't really useful when neither type are dominant in this game, and his main move (Twineedle/Sludge Bomb) gets resisted quite a lot.
Post in the thread if you think anything should be higher / lower.
permission from Nexus
YES I WILL GET THIS DONE MY COMPUTER WORKS NOW
(OP taken over from TrollFreak for NixHex)
Hey, OI, welcome to the GSC in-game tiers list. Anyone can post! So don't be afraid to post your thoughts, comments, etc. in the thread. Small entries only, and this goes up to Red.
I've decided that making this run kind of like a threatlist, so here are some things to follow:
- You can reserve a maximum of 3 Pokemon at a time.
- Only reserve something if you've played GSC in-depth before and have a good understanding of what the in-game battles are like. Don't just post here if you got the game yesterday and haven't beat Whitney.
- If you disagree with what tier a Pokemon was placed in, feel free to post and gove reasons as to why it should be lower / higher. Just saying "lol Cyndaquil should be in high tier and not top noob" is flat out disrespectful and unnecessary. We can all act like adults over something like Pokemon without insulting someone's intelligence.
The following is a list of what is [Reserved] and [DONE]. If you would like to reserve something, post here, VM / PM me, whatever, just let me know so I can update the thread accordingly.
Abra[DONE]
Bellsprout [DONE]
Caterpie
Chikorita [DONE]
Chinchou
Cleffa
Cubone
Cyndaquil [DONE]
Delibird [DONE]
Diglett
Ditto [DONE]
Doduo
Dratini
Drowzee
Eevee
Ekans
Elekid DONE
Exeggcute
Gastly [DONE]
Geodude [DONE]
Goldeen
Grimer
Growlithe
Gyarados (Red) [DONE]
Hoothoot
Hoppip [DONE]
Horsea
Houndour
Jigglypuff [DONE]
Jynx
Kabuto
Koffing
Krabby
Larvitar
Ledyba [DONE]
Machop [DONE]
Magby (C) [DONE]
Magikarp
Magmar (GS) [DONE]
Magnemite
Mankey
Mantine [DONE]
Mareep [DONE]
Marill
Meowth
Miltank [RESERVED]
Misdreavus [DONE]
Murkrow [DONE]
Natu
Nidoran-F
Nidoran-M
Oddish [DONE]
Omanyte
Onix DONE
Onix (Steelix) DONE
Paras
Phanpy
Pichu
Pidgey [DONE]
Pineco
Poliwag
Ponyta
Porygon
Psyduck
Rattata
Remoraid [DONE]
Rhyhorn
Sandshrew
Seel
Sentret [DONE]
Shellder
Shuckle [DONE]
Slugma
Slowpoke [DONE]
Smeargle [DONE]
Smoochum
Snubbull
Spearow
Spinarak
Staryu
Sunkern
Swinub
Tauros [DONE]
Teddiursa [DONE]
Tentacool
Togepi
Totodile
Tyrogue
Unown [DONE]
Venonat
Voltorb
Vulpix
Weedle DONE
Wooper
Zubat
Bellsprout [DONE]
Caterpie
Chikorita [DONE]
Chinchou
Cleffa
Cubone
Cyndaquil [DONE]
Delibird [DONE]
Diglett
Ditto [DONE]
Doduo
Dratini
Drowzee
Eevee
Ekans
Elekid DONE
Exeggcute
Gastly [DONE]
Geodude [DONE]
Goldeen
Grimer
Growlithe
Gyarados (Red) [DONE]
Hoothoot
Hoppip [DONE]
Horsea
Houndour
Jigglypuff [DONE]
Jynx
Kabuto
Koffing
Krabby
Larvitar
Ledyba [DONE]
Machop [DONE]
Magby (C) [DONE]
Magikarp
Magmar (GS) [DONE]
Magnemite
Mankey
Mantine [DONE]
Mareep [DONE]
Marill
Meowth
Miltank [RESERVED]
Misdreavus [DONE]
Murkrow [DONE]
Natu
Nidoran-F
Nidoran-M
Oddish [DONE]
Omanyte
Onix DONE
Onix (Steelix) DONE
Paras
Phanpy
Pichu
Pidgey [DONE]
Pineco
Poliwag
Ponyta
Porygon
Psyduck
Rattata
Remoraid [DONE]
Rhyhorn
Sandshrew
Seel
Sentret [DONE]
Shellder
Shuckle [DONE]
Slugma
Slowpoke [DONE]
Smeargle [DONE]
Smoochum
Snubbull
Spearow
Spinarak
Staryu
Sunkern
Swinub
Tauros [DONE]
Teddiursa [DONE]
Tentacool
Togepi
Totodile
Tyrogue
Unown [DONE]
Venonat
Voltorb
Vulpix
Weedle DONE
Wooper
Zubat
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[B]Pokemon[/B]
Availability (when it can be obtained the earliest):
Stats (Above Average, good, bad, etc):
Movepool (Above Average, good, bad, etc):
Gyms that it fares well against:
Other info (Good type coverage throughout the game, good resistance to a threatening type, etc):Pokemon GSC In-Game Tier List
Top Tier:
Abra
Availability: Early
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Above Average
Additional Comments: Useless against Whitney, the first leader you can fight after catching it, but excels later. Cleans out Morty's Gym by itself, same with Chuck's Gym. It slaughters Jasmine with Fire Punch, fares well vs Pryce and Clair, and does well against the Elite Four. Also cleans out every Team Rocket member by itself except for the final one at Radio Tower.
Gyarados (Red)
Availability: Required event
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Above Average
Additional Comments: The Red Gyarados rolls around at about the same level or higher than the rest of your team. It dominates everything in its path with Thrash (which even conserves PP thanks to being a multi-hit attack!), and makes a decent Surf user if you lack one already. If worse comes to worse, it's an excellent HM slave.
High Tier:
Cydaquil
Availability: Starter
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Above Average
Additional Comments: Fire-type STAB is one of the best in-game with only Rock-, Water-, and Fire-types resisting it, none of which feature prominently on opposing teams. It also obtains super effective coverage on three gym leaders pre-E4. Defensively it resists Grass-, Steel-, Fire-, Ice-, and Bug-types, the latter two being important for gyms.
Onix (Steelix)
Availability: Earlier and easy as Onix, you can trade one for a Bellsprout on Violet City.
Stats: Adove avarage.
Movepool: Avarage.
Gyms that it fares well against: Wins alone against Falkner, Bugsy, Whitney, Morty (once evolved), Jasmine, Pryce, Will, Koga, Lt. Surge, Sabrina, Erika, and Janine, and is helpful against Red's Pikachu and Snorlax.
Additional Comments: While he's Onix, he will be superior to Geodude, and somewhat similar to Graveler, but taking more turns to deal the same damage (but taking less damage from the enemy as well), but once it evolves; thing he can do before Morty with the Metal Coat from a wild Magnemite - but they had only 3% chance to have it -, keep it as Onix until aboard the S.S Aqua, somewhat late, sadly), he'll crush and destroy everything on the game that doesn't have Fire or Water attacks, and even then, he can deal huge damage or use support moves before failing or switching-out against them.
Gastly
Availability: Early
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Above Average
Additional Comments: Good Speed and powerful Special Attack, low Special Defense and Defense. Literally the only reasons it's in High and not Top is that it requires trading and evolves late (Level 25 is late in GSC).
Machop
Availability: Early
Stats: High
Movepool: Average
Additional Comments: Useful immediately to power through Whitney's team, and matches up fairly well with other gym leaders and the Elite 4.
Mareep (Gold and Silver only)
Availability: Early
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Above Average
Additional Comments: Great Special Attack and rather good defenses with all things considered, but is lacking speed. It is also weak to what is probably the least common attacking type in the game, Ground.
Geodude
Availability: Early
Stats: Average
Movepool: Average
Additional Comments: Geodude absolutely dominates the first three gyms and fairs fairly well against Morty if you bring a Mint Berry or two. Rock Throw is amazing against titans like Falkner's Pidgeotto and Bugsy's Scyther and it can go toe-to-toe with Whitney's Miltank of all things! Even after the first half of the gyms, it does great in the Team Rocket portions of the game and walls Rattata and Zubat all day.
Magmar (GS)
Availability: Fairly early, about midway through Johto in Burnt Tower.
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Average
Gyms that it fares well against: Fire Punch and Thunderpunch is good coverage for Jasmine and Pryce. It doesn't help much against Clair but it does do well against particular pokemon used by the elite 4. Koga is probably its best match-up, using Fire Punch for his bugs and Thunderpunch for Crobat. In Kanto, you have Erika and Janine as strong match-ups.
Other info: Fire STAB is fairly useful in GSC, and in GS Magmar is your best choice for a Fire type if you didn't pick Cyndaquil.
Slowpoke
Availability: Before Chuck's Gym. Can get a fully evolved Slowbro if lucky (Slowpoke Well). Alternatively, you can find a Slowpoke, level it up a bit, and trade right after you catch it.
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Above Average
Gyms that it fares well against: Does fairly well against most everything in-game
Other info: Water is always a great in-game typing, and Psychic is still very nice as Bug- and Dark-type attacks are rare. Opponents with Shadow Ball are basically non-existent after you get Slowbro/king. You do somewhat overlap with the Red Gyarados in terms of weaknesses/resistances, but unlike Gyarados, you get Psychic STAB and can make good use of Surf and Ice attacks-- doubling up on Water-types never hurts in GSC (especially since there are 2 Water type HMs you need to move around the map--Give Surf to Slowbro/king and throw waterfall somewhere on Gyarados).
Mid Tier:
Mantine - Mid Tier
Availability: He's a somewhat rare encounter on the sea routes between Olivine and Cianwood. You'll probably encounter at least one if you don't Repel spam.
Stats: Mantine's got a gargantuan 140 Base Special Defense and a respectable Base 80 Special Attack. Defense and HP are a little low at 70 and 65 respectively, and don't even bother with physical attacks, as it's not killing anything with Base 40 Attack. Speed's kinda mediocre as well at Base 70, but it's enough to get it by.
Movepool: Surf and Blizzard. These are the only two moves that matter, and Mantine uses them pretty darn well. Most of the things Mantine likes to hit use either Special Attacks or are slower than he is, so Mantine can afford to only have a couple of good moves. Yeah, his movepool is pretty barren...
Matchups: Mantine can beat Chuck's Primeape, but can't really harm his Poliwrath. Jasmine's Piloswine, Clair's three Dragonairs, and Pryce's Piloswine also fall to the manta ray. In the E4, Will has trouble actually hurting Mantine thanks to its Special Defense, but can't kill Slowbro. Koga's Ariados, Crobat and Venomoth also fall to Mantine, but Forretress likes to blow up and Muk likes to sit there and take Special hits all day. Bruno's Machamp has Rock Slide, but everyone else dies to Surf. Karen's Houndoom, Umbreon, and (sadly, terrible) Gengar all die to Mantine. The Dragonites outspeed Mantine, but Blizzard sorts them out, and only the Thunder Dragonite really poses a problem. In Kanto, Blaine, Janine, Brock, and part of Blue's team fall to Mantine. Red's Charizard is also no match for Mantine.
Additional Comments: Mantine's problem is a lack of moves. This is one of those things that GSC is famous for. Many Pokemon in this Generation suffer from not having a move they really want. Mantine really wants Ice Beam, but only gets it in Crystal. He's also not as diverse as some of the other Water types (looking at you, Lanturn), and he's pretty rare. All these factors plant him solidly in Mid Tier.
Teddiursa (C)
Availability: Early, before the first gym in Dark Cave.
Stats: Good
Movepool: Above Average
Gyms that it fares well against: It proves to be useful against the first gym leaders based on the power of its STAB moves alone (especially when it gets Headbutt). Once it reaches Goldenrod City it can improve its coverage with the elemental punches, allowing it to beat more things more easily. Fire Punch helps against Jasmine and by combining it with Thunderpunch you can sweep Pryce. Ice Punch deals with Clair, and from there you have the power and coverage to deal with a large number of the pokemon used by the elite 4 and Kanto Gym Leaders.
Other info: Thanks to a simple improvement in avaiability, this becomes an excellent choice for in-game runs. It comes early and has the stats and movepool to remain useful throughout the whole game.
Tauros
Stats: Above Average.
Movepool: Above Average
Gyms that it fares well against: Depending on having Earthquake or not, Tauros Gym/Boss match up goes from Amazing into Absurd. Tauros can handle almost every gym after Chuck by the virtue of having High Powered Normal Type as its STAB.
Other info: Defensively, Normal has one weakness, and one immunity. Fighting Weakness rarely come as a problem(only maybe Chuck, and Bruno's Machamp) while Ghost immunity means its match up against Morty's gym where you are not expected to have Pursuit yet. Offensively, Normal is kind of like gen 4 onwards Dragon, a type with relatively good neutral coverage, coupled with STAB to achieve higher level of power. The resistor can be handled with a coverage moves. That being said, most of Tauros Match up can be summed as: Does it resist Normal? No: Spam Normal Yes: Cover it.
Onix
Availability: Earlier and easy, you can trade one for a Bellsprout on Violet City.
Stats: Avarage.
Movepool: Avarage.
Gyms that it fares well against: Wins alone against Falkner, Bugsy, Whitney, and Lt. Surge without problem, and is helpful against Morty (needs the Mud Slap or Dig TM), Jasmine (same as before), Koga, Karen, Janine, Blaine, and Red (good against Pikachu, Snorlax, and Charizard).
Additional Comments: He's better than Geodude before it evolves, and is somewhat similar to Graveler, except because Onix prefer to deal damage with Bind + Sandstorm and wall the enemy while he's Screeching it for others or himself, too. Also, he can handle and survive to any random Self-Destruct and Explosion, and give you time for revive / heal his partners on mid battle. He will not sweep any time soon, but he can easy handle a good number of trainers and gyms alone. Also, he's a in-game trade, so, he'll win experience faster and will have better levels with less effort.
Elekid
Crystal: Mid Tier; Gold/Silver: Bottom Tier / out of play
Availability: Route 34 in Crystal (as an egg).
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Above Average where it counts
Gyms that it fares well against: Jasmine, if you grind and buy Fire Punch. Pryce, sort of with the water types. Clair if you bought the Ice Punch. From the Elite 4: Will's team is ripped apart, Koga if you got Fire Punch, can do a bit of damage, Karen you'll do well against for the secondary typing, and Lance is a dead-man. In Kanto: Erika dies to ice punch, Janine's dead, save for Weezing, Misty (except Quaggy) is decimated, and Blastoise is done from Red.
Additional Comments: Not much competition for that egg in Crystal. Magmar is nice, but fire is inferior. The trick is getting that Elekid, which is tough when it could contain Igglybuff, Pichu, Cleffa, Tyrogue, Magby, Elekid or Smoochum. Electabuzz quickly gets access to Thunderbolt and Ice Punch, even sets up a Dizzy Punch or Light Screen if you are bored (Dizzy punch is included in the Crystal Egg). It's not quite a Lapras in terms of movepool, but it doesn't have many weaknesses to speak of (though Ground is an issue). Makes up for not having Ampharos in Crystal. In Gold/Silver, he's completely useless, as he comes late, and you have Mareep from the beginning of the game. Mareep DOES NOT have access to an Ice move, though.
Chinchou
Availability: Midway through Johto, via fishing with a Good Rod.
Stats: Below Average
Movepool: Above Average
Gyms that it fares well against: Wide coverage is helpful. Spark and Surf work well together. It can hold its own Chuck’s Poliwrath, Jasmine’s Steelix, and Pryce’s team, and remains useful against particular elite 4 Pokémon (Gyarados, Onix, Murkrow, Slowbro, Xatu, etc.). It can also take on Brock, Misty and Blaine.
Other info: The Electric typing is a nice twist on what would otherwise be a generic Water type. Despite its middling stats, its STABs alone make it useful and it provides utility by learning all of the Water HMs. A set of Surf/Waterfall/Whirlpool/Spark is probably its best bet.
Chikorita
Availability: Starter Pokemon
Stats: The Chikorita family has fairly balanced stats. They have pretty good defenses, and their attack stats are not great but usable.
Movepool: Chikorita’s level-up movepool is not the best offensively, only giving it Razor Leaf (which has been nerfed in Gen 2) and Body Slam. However, it does learn a ton of great support moves, such as Reflect, Light Screen, and Synthesis.
Gyms that it fares well against: Chikorita actually serves as one of the best checks to Whitney’s infamous Miltank due to Reflect + Synthesis. Razor Leaf will also deal good damage to Chuck’s Poliwrath, Jasmine’s Steelix, and Pryce’s Piloswine. Meganium can also handle Bruno as Onix is OHKO by Razor Leaf, and a Reflect helps keep Meganium gets by the Fighting moves. In Kanto, Meganium's typing gives it an advantage over Brock, Misty, L.T. Surge, Erika, & half of Red's team (Pikachu, Venusaur, and Blastoise).
Additional Comments: Chikorita is certainly an interesting starter. It struggles in many places, but its a good team supporter and can excel in some of the games harder match ups, such as Whitney and Red.
Bellsprout
Availability: Early
Stats: Average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Bellsprout can be caught right around the first gym and, although it's useless in that particular battle, it does very well in Union Cave. Vine Whip is not to be underestimated when it's striking Onix and Geodude for 4x super effective damage. As time goes by, Bellsprout stays useful by learning Sleep Powder(!), and later on Sludge Bomb and Razor Leaf. Using Vine Whip for so long gets annoying, but it gets the job done when it's needed. Sadly, it will take ages for it to reach its full potential as a Victreebel in Gold and Silver, but it can get off the round pretty early if you're playing Crystal.
Sentret
Availability: Early
Stats: Below Average
Movepool: Wide
Additional Comments: Has bad offensive stats but respectable Speed. Makes an excellent HM slave, learning Surf, Cut, and Strength.
Magby (C)
Availability: Early, hatched from the Odd Egg.
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Average
Gyms that it fares well against: Magby is available for Whitney, unlike GS Magmar. However, it isn't useful here since it gets destroyed by Whitney's Rollout. It will also be unevolved for Morty. Otherwise, the matchups are the same. Fire Punch and Thunderpunch still provide excellent coverage against many important pokemon (Jasmine and Pryce mainly). It contributes in elite 4 battles, especially against Koga.
Other info: Magmar is still a strong pokemon but it comes unevolved and underleveled in Crystal, and you have to hope that the Odd Egg hatches into the right pokemon. This makes it a less useful choice in Crystal.
Low Tier:
Oddish
Availability: Oddish is first found when you reach Ilex Forest, and is fairly common at night.
Stats: Good early on, but having a stone evo really gives him problems.
Movepool: Pretty bad. Oddish suffers from having only Absorb, Acid, and Cut for a long, long, time, and Sludge Bomb isn't much help. It takes until the E4 to get a useful attack move.
Gyms that it fares well against:
Oddish can help with Chuck, Bruno, Lt. Surge, Erika, and Brock, as well as cleaning up certain pokemon on other teams. It also isn't completely destroyed by Team Rocket, compared to other Grass types.
Other info: Vileplume's biggest two problems are severely bad damage early on and a difficult evolution. Both of these cannot be rectified until the E4, so using it's honestly an uphill battle. Cut being your best move against most things is very unpleasant, and being walled is never fun. In the end it's not so bad that it can't be used, it's just terrible enough that almost any other Grass type that isn't useless(examples of useless include Hoppip and Paras) probably does its job better. The poison neutrality is pretty good, though, and it's fairly usable in Kanto.
Teddiursa (G)
Availability: Later in Johto, Route 45.
Stats: Good
Movepool: Above Average
Gyms that it fares well against: It depends on what you teach it so you can mix-and-match to suit your teams needs. Ice Punch covers Clair, and Fire Punch and Thunderpunch add coverage against many of the Elite 4 pokemon. Teddiursa also has its powerful STAB moves to wreck mosts things that don't resist it, especially after evolution. Teddiursa remains useful against the Kanto gym leaders thanks to its great stats and movepool.
Other info: This is let down severely by being unavailable for most of the game. By the time you reach it, you may not even need its power because your team should be strong by that point. However, if you are willing to put in the time to get it to catch up it can be a great pokemon.
Pidgey
Availability: Early
Stats: Below Average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has weak stats all around and doesn't fully evolve until level 36, very late into the game and past the point of usefulness. It does learn Fly, however, and is available rather early.
Jigglypuff
Availability: Early. Route 46 (GS, as a Jigglypuff) or Route 34 (Crystal, either caught as a Jigglypuff or from the Odd Egg as an Igglybuff).
Stats: Below Average
Movepool: Above Average
Gyms that it fares well against: It depends on what moves you gave it. Fire Punch is good for Jasmine and Erika, Ice Punch is good for Clair, Erika and Brock, and Thunderpunch is good for Misty. It you have all 3 then you can potential contribute in almost all battles, but strength wise full sweeps will be difficult to achieve.
Other info: Like many normal types, it can achieve excellent coverage via TM moves. However, there are many better alternatives, and although Wigglytuff is an ok pokemon in its own right after it is evolved you may be better off using something else.
Bottom Tier:
Delibird
Bottom Tier
Stats: Dear lord, Delibird, you have the stats of a NFE Pokemon. Base 65 SpAtk is only slightly better than Ariados' and Base 45 defenses is just pitiful. The only interesting thing is having 75 Base speed...as your best stat.
Movepool: Godawful, you are completely reliant on TMs to do anything at all, because your only Level up move has a CHANCE OF HEALING YOUR FOE! As for TMs, aside from Fly, Icy Wind and Blizzard, there is nothing at all interesting. As in, you have no other STAB, the only other attacking moves you get are Headbutt and Mud Slap (and obligatory Frustration/Return)...and that's it. Nothing good at all aside from Blizzard, which got nerfed considerably in Gen 2 (90% accuracy all the way down to 70% accuracy)
Matchups: Delibird doesn't really excel anywhere thanks to its terribad stats and amazingly shallow movepool. The entire reason you'd want an Ice type is to take care of the six or so Dragons in the game, and Delibird can't even do that! He can contribute in some of the Kanto gyms if you didn't bother dumping it as soon as you could thanks to sheer level advantage, but even then, there are things that do its job way better in the same place that are far easier to find and capture.
Additional Comments: Delibird has a cool sounding cry, and a unique design. It also just so happens to have a terrible movepool consisting of Fly, Blizzard, and Icy Wind. It is completely reliant on TMs to do anything aside from healing the enemy, and even then, it can't use any TMs to make it a decent Pokemon. It's stats are also on the line between terrible and godawful. It's literally worse than Gen 3 Luvdisc, because at least it could learn some moves and have Ice Beam! Avoid at all cost.
Shuckle - Bottom Tier
Availability: Earliest you can get is after Sudowoodo, by getting the TM from the guy near it on Route 36 (don't worry about being limited, they also become available from Goldenrod), and going to Burned Tower to smash some rocks for a 10% chance of a L15 Shuckle. Otherwise, you can get one for free at Cianwood, which also gets boosted experience.
Stats: It has the best defenses in the game, but it also happens to be even slower than Slowpoke and has the offenses of a Magikarp.
Movepool: There isn't much to be said when your only STAB is Rollout. Shuckle learns a variety of utility moves (as well as Earthquake/Sludge Bomb, wasted on something with Shuckle's offenses), which makes him a status abuser, so to speak.
Gyms it's good at: Considering that his awesome defenses are countered badly by his bad HP, and that he has Magikarp-level offenses, he's not going to be useful anywhere soon other than being item fodder.
Other info: Shuckle may seem useless but still has one trick up his sleeve, legs, shell, whatever: he has the ability to make infinite Rare Candies. By attaching a Berry onto Shuckle and walking around, Shuckle will be able to turn your Berry into a Berry Juice and then a Rare Candy, providing the potential for infinite Rare Candies and a gamebreaker. Unfortunately, the time invested is contradictory to efficiency, placing it in Bottom.
Remoraid
Availability: Remoraid is very late by Johto standards, swarming at an underleveled 20 or after reaching Kanto when you get the Super Rod at level 40. It's not available in Crystal..
Stats: Remoraid has pathetic defenses and only decent offenses, and its evolution has only average defense but rather good mixed offenses.
Movepool: Below average. Remoraid basically depends on Aurora/Ice Beam, Bubblebeam/Surf, Psybeam, and perhaps Thief. Nothing else works for it.
Gyms that it fares well against:
Remoraid comes late and really doesn't do so well, especially since it's underleveled. It can possibly take out Karen(bar Vileplume) and Blaine, but everyone else either resists or easily KOs Octillery.
Other info: Octillery is probably one of the worst fully evolved water types in the game. It comes late, is easy to miss, doesn't even have any good moves for the time it does show up and is dangerously easy to KO considering its lame speed. It does get acceptable coverage for some of the smaller fights, but realistically you'd be better off with any other Water. Not to mention Surfing is mandatory by the time you actually have access to it, so you probably already have a good Water..
Hoppip
Availability: Routes 32 and 33, right after Violet City.
Stats: Bad. All he has is good speed.
Movepool: Horrible. He has almost no attacking options and has to rely on Synthesis with Status support.
Gyms that it fares well against:
Hoppip is only really capable of taking down Brock. Everyone else has at least one party member he cannot harm in any meaningful way, and often multiple ones.
Other info: Hoppip is really weak and almost completely useless. It can only attempt to use status to defeat most opponents, bar the occasional 4x grass weak.
Electabuzz
Gold/Silver: Bottom Tier / out of play
Availability: Route 10
Stats: Above Average
Movepool: Above Average where it counts
Gyms that it fares well against: Jasmine, if you grind and buy Fire Punch. Pryce, sort of with the water types. Clair if you bought the Ice Punch. From the Elite 4: Will's team is ripped apart, Koga if you got Fire Punch, can do a bit of damage, Karen you'll do well against for the secondary typing, and Lance is a dead-man. In Kanto: Erika dies to ice punch, Janine's dead, save for Weezing, Misty (except Quaggy) is decimated, and Blastoise is done from Red.
Additional Comments: Electabuzz quickly gets access to Thunderbolt and Ice Punch, even sets up a Dizzy Punch or Light Screen if you are bored (Dizzy punch is included in the Crystal Egg). It's not quite a Lapras in terms of movepool, but it doesn't have many weaknesses to speak of (though Ground is an issue). In Gold/Silver, he's completely useless, as he comes late, and you have Mareep from the beginning of the game. Mareep DOES NOT have access to an Ice move, though.
Togepi
Availability: Early, obtained from an egg after beating Falkner.
Stats: Below Average
Movepool: Below Average
Gyms that it fares well against: It doesn’t really do well against any of them in Johto thanks to its poor movepool early on. Its best moves (Psychic and SolarBeam) come quite late. Admittedly, those are useful against Brock, Misty and Janine, but it’s just too little too late.
Other info: This is junk. Poor stat distribution and a poor movepool make it fairly useless. The fact that it will be underleveled by the time it hatches (unless you actually stop your progress to wait for it to hatch) is lame and the way it evolves through happiness is yet another reason not to use this.
Unown
Availability: Early
Stats: Low
Movepool: Shallow
Gyms that it fairs well against: Falkner
Other info: Unown's only saving grace is the fact that you can catch one with a Hidden Power of any type, meaning that it can give some much-needed coverage early in the game; pick one with HP Ice, Electric, or Rock, and it'll help you beat out Falkner if you started with Chikorita. Its stats are too low to function meaningfully later in the game, though, even with super-effective attacks, and it cannot meaningfully be trained up because it badly needs coverage to score KOs.
Murkrow
Availability: Late
Stats: Low
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: It is extremely unavailable, has a poor stat distribution, a terrible movepool, and just being overall weak, and those defenses aren't helping much. However, it has a niche over Sabrina and Red, but its too late to warrant use.
Misdreavus
Availability: Late
Stats: Low
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Very rare, only found in Mt. Silver at night. It learns two attacking moves via level up, and only 8 total. It can't really put good TMs to use either besides Psychic.
Ledyba (Sliver and Crystal Only)
Availability: Early
Stats: Low
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Weak to Ice, Electric, Fire, Rock and Flying. Not exactly good news. It isn't worth commenting on its STABS because it has no STAB moves (not even Fury Cutter).
Ditto
Availability: Early
Stats: Low
Movepool: Transform
Additional Comments: Ditto is so terrible it needs no explanation. It's better left waiting until it becomes a Wifi mod.
Smeargle
Availability: Early
Stats: Low
Movepool: ADD
Additional Comments: Smeargle can learn any move it wants, but it's extremely painful to do so once every ten levels with no move tutor and no double battles to copy partner attacks. Did I mention it's hard to get, too?
Weedle
Availability: Route 30 on Silver/Crystal. Gold players get this at Bug-Catching contest (or catch Beedrill directly). Honestly there probably isn't a difference other than directly caught Beedrill lacking Poison Sting.
Stats: Passable Attack and Special Defense, decent speed, but incurable physical bulk.
Movepool: Enjoy abusing Twineedle for quite a while. Finishing Team Rocket in Mahogany nets you Sludge Bomb.
Gyms: well it 4x resists Fighting so it's useful against Chuck/Bruno... if the former didn't just blow you away with Fury Swipes Primeape and Surf Poliwrath, and the latter has Rock Slide Machamp. It completely walks over Erika but you must be one dedicated trainer to be using Beedrill in Kanto. Psychics are a no-no: Beedrill cannot kill things in time before it gets killed.
Additional Comments: Double resists to Fighting and Grass aren't really useful when neither type are dominant in this game, and his main move (Twineedle/Sludge Bomb) gets resisted quite a lot.
Post in the thread if you think anything should be higher / lower.
